E 

-I - 

STONEWALL JACKSON 
AND CHANCELLORSVILLE 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE MILITARY 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHU 
SETTS, ON THE FIRST OF MARCH, 1904 



BY JAMES POWER SMITH 

Captain and A. D. C. to Gen. Jackson 



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PUBLISHED BY 

R. E. LEE CAMP, No. 1, CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
Richmond, Va. 




CLiss E- A-'^'l 



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presi:nti-:i) hy 



STONEWALL JACKSON 
AND CHANCELLORSVILLE 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE MILITARY 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHU 
SETTS, ON THE FIRST OF MARCH, 1904 



BY JAMES POWER SMITH 

Captain and A. D. C. to Gen, Jackson 



•^^C^fSl^ 



HiniLISIlED 15V 

R. E. LEE CAMP, No. 1, CONFEDERATE VETERANS 
Richmond, Va. 






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stonewall Jackson and ChancelloFSYille. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the 

Military Historical Society of Massachusetts: 

Some years ago I had the pleasure to meet in our city of Eich- 
mond a gentleman of Boston, of wide 'intelligence and courteous 
bearing, broad in spirit, loving the truth, and striving to do full 
justice to all sections and to every claim just history could make. 
I allude to the distinguished founder of this Society, Mr. John 
C. Eopes. It was an inspiration of candor to know him, and it 
is an elevating moment in life when he is brought to mind. 

It is a sincere pleasure to me to meet, to-night, gentlemen of 
like spirit, who wish to preserve the facts of the war between the 
States, that truth may have an unimpeded sway in history, that 
high character and noble manhood, wherever found in those days, 
may continue to exert their influence upon the manhood of the 
nation, and help to bind anew the ties that were once so rudely 
broken. I thank you most heartily for your invitation to be your 
guest to-night. In the spirit of your invitation, I most cordially 
respond. 

HEADQUARTERS AT MOSS NECK. 

After the battle of Fredericksburg, and the withdrawal of Burn- 
side's army to the north of the Eappahannock, it was thought 
there might be an attempt to cross at another point. Stuart, of 
the Confederate cavalry, went down as far as Port Eoyal, twenty 
miles below Fredericksburg, and Jackson's Infantry divisions were 
sent down the Eappahannock hills. General Jackson rode down 
the river road, accompanied by myself as aide, and a half doaeii 
couriers. After the middle of the day, we learned from Stuart 
that there were no indications of an attempt by the Federal forces 
to cross the river. ' Orders were sent to our division commanders 
to go into camp, and the question arose as to a headquarter camp 
for the night. I suggested Moss ISTeck, the large and handsome 
residence of Mr. James Park Corbin, as a suitable place for our 



shelter for the night, but we had no sooner come into view of 
the elegant mansion than the General sharply said^ "No, we will 
make a camjo fire in the woods." Instead of the comfort and sup- 
per, and charming hospitality, we went a mile beyond, and, dis- 
mounting, prepared for a dismal night. And one young man was 
in a decidedly bad humor. It was bitterly cold; with the roar- 
ing fires the couriers made it was impossible to get warm. We 
had absolutely no food in our haversacks. Supperless and cold, 
the General and I laid down side by side on our saddle blankets, 
but there was no sleep. The cold was intense and the hunger 
increased. We sent a courier to Mr. Corbin's, and there came back 
a basket of cold bread and a ham bone, with an urgent bidding to 
come at once to the house. About midnight the General expe- 
rienced a change of heart, to my great satisfaction. We rode to 
the house, aroused the household from the darkness and slumber, 
ladies and servants gave us a cordial welcome, and soon we were 
asleep, the General in bed in one of the chambers and his aide on 
a warm rug before an open fire of logs in the drawing room. 

So it came that General Jackson made his headquarters at Moss 
Neck for that winter, between Fredericksburg and Chancellors- 
ville. The mansion was large, and a greater part of it unoccu- 
pied, but he positively declined to occupy any apartments, gladly 
thrown open to bim, and betook himself and his party to tents. 
But in a week or two cold settled in his ears and gave him great 
pain, and his medical director and friend. Dr. McGuire, insisted 
that he must go into shelter. Eeluctantly consenting, he compro- 
mised, and into an office building his camp cot was removed, only 
on the plea that he would be able there to discharge the duties 
that pressed upon him. General Lee spent the winter, rough, 
.stormy and bitterly cold, in tents on the Old Mine road, when 
any number of comfortable mansions were at his disposal. 

The small frame building which Jackson occupied was the 
office of a country gentleman of large estate. There was an open 
fire place, with plain iron fire dogs; there was a book-case, with 
sets of Virginia statutes, Farmers' Registers and volumes of the 
Gentleman's Magazine. On the walls were pictures of famous 
horses and fine cattle, and over the mantle a tinted picture of a 



famous terrier in a rat worry. There was the camp cot, a small 
table, a wash-stand and a few stools. The General's overcoat hung 
on the wall, and by it his sword, and in a corner stood his high 
boots. In an attic room overhead, by the General's request, I 
made my lodging place at night. Before the door a guard paced 
by day and by night. The headquarter's camp, with officers' tents 
and a dining tent and Adjutant's quarters, was a few hundred 
yards away, under the trees. 

It was a memorable winter. The General was never absent for 
a night, was quite amiable and accessible, though quiet and re- 
served. He listened pleasantly to our table talk, though he easily 
grew abstracted, enjoyed our stories, then showed how little im- 
pression they made by going away in the midst of the very best, 
and betaking himself to his work, in which there was little inter- 
ruption. That he regarded his duties seriously, I need not say. 
Of all the multitude of affairs in that large army corps, there 
was nothing of which he did not know, and there was no part 
which did not feel tlie pressure of his will and energy. 

Under that energetic administration, there was work every- 
wliere: organization, appointment of officers, inspection, dis- 
cipline, drill. And the command soon responded in improved 
condition. The return of absent officers and men was a matter 
of great concern. Every possible effort was made to fill the ranks. 
From the homes and hospitals men were called; arms and ammu- 
nition, ordnance, horses, clothing, supplies of every kind were re- 
plenished. Every bureau of the War Department in Eichmond 
was kept awake by Jackson's demands. If the stores were not 
forthcoming, he would know the reason why. In the field it was 
pleasant to know that the rest of bureau officers was disturbed by 
nightmares, in which Stonewall Jackson rode into the chamber 
with drawn sabre. 

DISTINGUISHED GUESTS. 

All this work found its pleasant interruption in the visit of 
important people — Gen. Robert E. Lee and staff sometimes called 
for a short interview. The four division commanders dismounted 
at his door to pay their respects, but never to bring business. Con- 



gressmen from Richmond came to spend the da}^ No more wel- 
come guest ever came than Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, with clanking 
sabre and spurs and a long black plume, the very picture of a gay 
cavalior, who came sweeping across the fields singing, "If -"-ou 
want to have a good time, join tlie cavalr}' !"' Among the visitors 
were several officers of the English army, wlio had great desire to 
see Stonewall Jackson, the hero of the Shenandoah. The young 
Marqnis of Hartington, now the Duke of Devonshire, spent a 
Aveek with us. He shared my blankets and rode my horses. He 
saw a fine review of the corps in the broad plain below with some 
admiration, and visited the young ladies in the old homes on the 
hills with much greater satisfaction. With him was his friend. 
Colonel Leslie, a military man, then in the House of Commons, 
who spent most of the week with General Jackson, and when he 
went away, said to the staff, "Jackson is the best informed mili- 
tary man I have met in America, and as perfect a gentleman as I 
have ever seen." There was Mr. Lawley, of the London Times, 
an agreeable guest, from Avhom, I am sure, no information was 
withheld by the staff, and to whom no information was given by 
the General. Colonel Freemantle, of the Cold Stream Guards, 
came, I think, from Canada. And Lord Wolsley, afterward the 
British Commander-in-Chief, was a yet more distinguished guest. 
In the midst of the winter, on Christmas day. General Jack- 
son had a dinner party. There was the Commanding General, 
Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, the superb cav- 
alry leader, the Eev. Dr. Pendleton, our general of artillery, the 
rector of the Episcopal church at Lexington, who said the grace, 
and ate the dinner and said it was all very good. There were 
Col. Charles Venable, later of the University of Virginia, and 
Charles Marshall, a distinguished lawyer of Baltimore; and John 
Esten Cooke, who wrote Surrey of Eagle's Nest, and other war 
stories; and big Von Borck, the Prussian dragoon, with sabre like 
the sword of Goliath; and Major Pelham, "the gallant Pelham of 
Alabama," a smooth-faced boy of dauntless courage and marvel- 
lous skill with horse artillery; and George Peterkin, now the 
Bishop of West Virginia; and, of our own party, Col. Charles 
James Faulkner, lately IT. S. Minister to Paris, as courtly as any 



Frenchman with whom he had dined at Versailles; Dr. Hunter 
McGuire, the renowned surgeon, to whom Virginia has erected a 
monument in the Capitol Scjuare, and Col. Sandy Pendleton, who 
fell in the A'alley, a brilliant young scholar and a gallant soldier. 
General Lee, with quiet humor, ridiculed the white aprons of our 
servant boys, and General Stuart seized the plate of yellow but- 
ter^ on which was the print of a game cock, and, with great delight, 
declared it was Jackson's coat-of-arms. 

HIS EARLY LIFE. 

Stonewall Jackson was born at Clarksburg, now West Virginia, 
January 31, 1834, of a vigorous Scotch-Irish stock. He had the 
strong inbred qualities that came in the blood of a stalwart strain. 
He had the discipline of a hard life in his youth, for at seven years 
he was a homeless orj^han boy, drifting from place to place, and 
in the tenderest years of youth, exposed and unprotected, seeking 
his bread as he could find it. Running away from a kinsman's 
home, of a kind that did not care, with an older brother boating 
on the Ohio, camping in hunger and cold, riding his uncle's horses 
on a race course, doing the rude work of a County Constable in a 
mountain county, this is the story of his youth. There was 
almost no instruction, as there was no counsel, and no ruling au- 
thority through all the young years of growth and formation. 
How marvelous it was that out of such a youth he came with purity 
and integrity, truthful, modest, looking so bravely into his coming 
years that he wrote as the first of his boyish maxims of life, "You 
may be whatever you resolve to be !" 

As I knew him, he was a man of good size, a little under six 
feet, five feet, ten and three-quarter inches, of square shoulders, 
and large bones, with large feet and hands. He had brown hair 
and beard that grew reddish in the sun. He had blue eyes of 
great gentleness, that grew not fierce, but intense and strong in 
the passion of battle. He was erect and soldierly in bearing, with 
a stride that was long and firm. He was quick and abrupt in 
utterance; in conversation preferring rather to listen than t> sp3ak. 
He rode naturally and easily, withont a thought of appearancfe. 



He was clean and neat in his personal habit;, ai'd dressed plainly, 
abhorring anything that savored of display. He was courteous 
to ladies and exceedingly fond of children. He was serious- 
minded, rather than playful or humorous, and of intense appli- 
cation to duty. 

HIS HUMANITY. 

He was humane, and felt deeply for those in any distress. For 
the suffering population in Fredericksburg, after the bombard- 
ment and the battle, he was greatly concerned. He issued an 
appeal to the officers and men of his command, and $30,000 passed 
through my hands, for which I have the receipts of the Mayor of 
that town. 

He owned two or three servants, purchased at their own solici- 
tation, and of a kind that were more burdensome than helpful. 
For them he had constant remembrance, and away in camp he 
made thoughtful provision for their wants. For a sick woman 
among his servants he wrote from the field a letter of the kind- 
est sympathy and of religious consolation. It was his own propo- 
sition to gather the negroes of Lexington into a Sunday-school, 
and for five or six years, until he was called to the field, he con- 
ducted it, and taught with a fidelity and zeal that could not be 
excelled. A church for the colored people in the city of Roanoke 
is now installing a handsome memorial window to the memory 
of Stonewall Jackson, placed there by the grateful devotion of a 
colored preacher, who received his religious instruction from 
Major Jackson. 

During the winter at Moss Neck I had a boy as my servant 
from the town of Lexington, both very black and very faithful. 
One day I was surprised to see the General eyeing him very closely 
as he worked about the camp fire. "Why, is that you, John ?" the 
General said, surprised and pleased. When I asked John after- 
wards how he came to know General Jackson, he said, "Oh, I 
know the Major; the Major made me get the Catechism." He 
was one of the scholars of Jackson's Sunday-school, and he knew 
his Catechism well. The only fault of which John could be charged 
was that, unlike all the other servants, he liked to see the battle. 



Mounted on a fine mare of mine, which I had never ridden into 
danger, John came again and again under fire, and seemed most 
happv in the fire and smoke of battle. It is a question some of 
my Boston friends may discuss whether John derived his rare 
military spirit from Stonewall Jackson or from the Westminster 
Shorter Catechism. And I may add, in this remote part of the 
theological world, that that Catechism and its teachings are be- 
lieved'^bv some to have had something to do with the soldierly 
valor and renown of many others than Stonewall Jackson and my 
black boy, John. 



BARBARA FRIETCHIE. 



Good Mr. ^Yhittier does justice to the kindly spirit of Stonewall 
Jackson when, in Barbara Frietchie, he represents him as cry- 
ing, at the sight of the old woman waving her flag: 

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head 
Dies like a dog. 'March on,' he said." 

Jackson would have died himself before he would have per- 
mitted a rudeness of any kind to that or any woman, old or young. 
And the quaker poet never wrote a more beautiful piece of de- 
scriptive poetry. Live as it will, it must be forever regretted that 
it embalms in its pure amber a story, for which there was not 
the slightest foundation of fact. I joined Jackson's staff at Fred- 
erick Citv, and with the most intimate acquaintance with all the 
.tat! anc{ the general officers of the command, I never heard a 
word of that story until I read the verses after the war was over. 
Col H Kyd Douglass, who died lately at Hagerstown, was a 
member of the stafl:', and being familiar with Frederick, rode be- 
side of the General, who sat on his horse by the side of the road 
that neither the General nor the troops passed by the home of old 
Barbara, and there was no firing on any flag. It was Mrs. South- 
worth the author of over-much fiction, who sent the story to 
Mr. Whittier, a story which the genius of Mr. Whittier has pre- 
served for all time. 



Ills RELIGION". 

]\Ir. Carlyle says, "A man's religion is the chief fact with regard 
to him." And more than of any man of renown of modern times, 
it is true of Jacki^on that his religion was the man himself. It 
was not only that he was a religious man, but he was that rare 
man among men, to whom religion was everything. He had a 
mother of piety and love, but she left him a little eliild of seven 
years, with nothing of religious instruction, no mother's knee at 
which to say his childhood's prayer, no hand to guide and restrain, 
nothing save the memory tliat never faded of that mother's love 
and parting blessing. At West Point an officer and professor of 
piety, Col. Francis Taylor, of the First Artillery, spoke kindly to 
him of the claims of ])ersonal religion, and it was not forgotten. 
At St. John's church. Fort Hamilton, he was baptized into the 
Christian faith by an Episcopal' clergyman, in the church whose 
records show (^ol. Robert E. Lee a vestryman a few years before. 
In the city of IMcxico he sought instruction from a Bishop of the 
Catholic Cburcli. Something was drawing him. a "love that 
would not let liim go." Free from prejudice and all narrowness 
of spirit, lie was seeking light as to faith and duty. In Lexing- 
ton he went froui Clnireh to Church, until he found the gentle, 
saintly and venerable Presl)ytorian pastor. Dr. William S. White, 
to be the guide he needed. Slowly, through donbts, with some 
honest difficulties honestly dealt with, he came to a persona^ faith, 
simple, direct, loving, strong, that took hold of bis whole lieing. 
The Psalmist says of the wicked man. "God is not in all his 
thoughts." The supreme fact in the character of Stonewall 
Jackson was that "Cod was in all his thoughts." He believed in 
and realized the providence and presence of God, and so believed 
in and practiced prayer, and prayer that was not so much stated 
and occasional, as it was continuous and intimate. The thought of 
God seemed never absent. "God has given us a brilliant victory 
at Harper's Ferry to-day." And that was the model of all his 
dispatches. He was neither Ingot nor fanatic. Having strong 
convictions, and ruling his own life strictly, he respected the views 
of others. For a Louisiana regiment he sought a Catholic priest 



11 

for its chaplain. As the years go by, he rises into the ranks of 
the soldier-saints of histor}^ — St. Louis, of France; Gustavus Adol- 
phus, of Sweden; Oliver Cromwell, of England; Stonewall Jack- 
son, of America ! 

HIS POLITICS. 

May I say a word as to his politics ? Unlike Gen. Eobert E, 
Lee. General Jackson was a democrat of the State's Rights School, 
and was known as such in all his life in Lexington. In this school 
it is enough to say that he had been educated by the Government 
of the United States in the Military Academy at West Point. 
The authority on the Constitution, in which he had been instructed, 
was the book of William Eawles, the distinguished lawyer and 
jurist of Pennsylvania, who sajs, "It depends on the State itself 
to retain or abolish the principle of representation, because it de- 
pends on itself, whether it will continue a member of the Union. 
To deny this right would be inconsistent with the principles on 
which all our political systems are founded, which is that the 
people have in all cases a right to determine how they will be 
governed." That the sovereignty of the Amerijcan States, and 
their right to remain or to withdraw from the Union, were taught 
in all parts of the land and accepted by a great section of the peo- 
ple in all the States, could be shown abundantly. It has been true 
in the State of Massachusetts, for example, by the words of Col. 
Thomas Pickering, 1803, of Josiah Quincy, 1811, of John Quincy 
Adams, 1839, and Daniel Webster, in his speech at Capon Springs, 
1851, down to and including Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge in his Life 
of Webster. One can hardly imagine that Stonewall Jackson could 
have been convicted of treason against the Constitution of the 
United States in any court in Massachusetts. He respected the 
flag of the Federal government so long as it represented the Con- 
stitution and the rights and liberties of the sovereign States. 
When it ceased to do this, and represented something else, he felt 
himself absolved from obligation. If there was rebellion abroad 
in the land, he had no part in it. 

There is a story of a certain village autocrat who was accus- 
tomed to talk to his neighbors after this manner: "Xow, I want 



1^ 

you to uiKler^^tancl, I'm not a-arguing with you; I'm a-telling of 
you !" 

PERSONAL TRAITS. 

He was regarded as a man of oddities at West Point, in the 
United States army and at Lexington. He was abrupt in speech 
and manner, sometimes absent-minded and aloof, as not inter- 
ested in many things that interested others, and somewhat pecu- 
liar in his gait and in his gestures. Those things came in good 
part from the simplicity of his character, his absolute truthful- 
ness and sincerity. Of personal traits one of the most marked 
Avas his modesty, for he blushed like a girl when surrounded by 
ladies. Two 3'oung girls near Moss Neck asked for a lock of his 
hair and he was so overcome that he had no defence. 

There was reticence as to his achievements. Lord Wolseley 
says he could not get a word out of him about his battles; and 
Mr. Lawley. who wanted to write a letter for the London Times, 
says that Jackson talked for an hour about the English cathe- 
drals, and told him more about the lancet windows of York Min- 
uter than he had ever heard in England. 

There was cheerfulness, even under the strain of care and great- 
est anxiety. He asked Dr. McGuire to say to our commissary. 
Major HaivTi.es, that he wished some chicken sent to head quar- 
ters soon, but the Doctor returned with the message that the com- 
missary said ''ihe Havjkes had eaten them up," and he was greatly 
delighted. There was enthusiasm — often awakened. There was 
self-mastery in marvellous degree. He had the essential qualities 
of a soldier. A subordination, implicit; a patient endurance of 
Hardship coming in the line of duty, and that coolness under iire 
which makes a man more collected and concentrated, and enables 
him to make prompt decision. 

SOLDIERLY QUALITIES. 

In tactics there was appreciation of artillery, as with all great 
generals, and an ultimate reliance on the bayonet. In strategy, 
his fort Avas in the aggressive, not the defensive. An attack on 
the flank or in some unexpected quarter, with concealment of the 



13 

movement, was his chosen method. As a general, he took a broad, 
intelligent view of the topography of the country, and knew well 
his maps. He had a keen sense of time, and watched the sun or 
sat in his saddle with his watch in his hand. He made careful 
estimate of the opposing general, and weighed his opportunity 
and his difficulties, and what this man would be likely to do. 

He mystified and deceived his enemy by concealment from his 
own generals and his own staff. We were led to believe things 
that were very far from his purpose. Major Hotchkiss, his topo- 
graphical engineer, told that the General would for hours study 
the map in one direction, and would at daylight move in the op- 
posite direction. 

HIS TKOOPS. 

He well apprehended that it was a volunteer and patriotic sol- 
diery with which he had to do, not an army of regulars, disciplined 
and drilled and fought as a machine. The troops of Jackson had 
no doubt, as much of discipline and drill as they needed, and not 
enough to destroy their individuality or impair their splendid 
personal intelligence and unconquerable energy. They were as 
unlike as it was possible to be, the six hundred who rode into the 
valley of death. 

"Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why." 

They were more like the band of Swiss patriots, 

"When each one felt himself were he 
On whose sole arm hung victory.''' 

Contented and happy in camp, in the field they asked only the 
will of their commander, and went into the fire of battle with a 
moral power that was irresistible. It was not for the defence of 
slavery that these men left their homes and suffered privation, 
and faced the peril of battle. In the stalwart ranks of his bri- 
gades there were very few that owned a slave or had any interest 
in the institution. General Lee had emancipated his slaves before 



tlie war, and I doubt not Jackson would have done the same thing 
if he could haA'e emancipated himself from obligation to be the 
friend they needed. 

Bred in whatever school of American politics, they believed, to 
a man, in the integrity and sovereignty of the Commonwealth 
And, like Robert E. Lee, they laid down everything and came to 
the borders to resist invasion at the call of the mother. The troops 
that Stonewall Jackson led were like him, largely, in principle 
and in aim, and he rode among them as one of themselves — a war 
genius of their own breeding; and what he was, to a large degree, 
were the men who went wild with passion to go with him through 
the sea of battle to the other shore. 

"The true test of civilization," says Emerson, "is not the cen- 
sus, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops; no, but the l-ind of men 
the country turns out.'" 

ON THE FIELD. 

Outwardly, Jackson was not a stone wall, for it was not in his 
nature to be stable and defensive, but vigorously active. He was 
an avalanche from an unexpected quarter. He was a thunder- 
bolt from a clear sky. And 3'ot he was in character and will more 
like a stone wall than any man I have known. 

On the field bis judgment seemed instinctive. No one of his 
staff ever knew bim to change his mind. There was a short, quick 
utterance, like the iiash of the will from an inspired intelligence, 
and the command was imperative and final. He was remarkable 
as a commander for the care of his troops, and had daily knowl- 
edge about the work of all staff departments — supply, medical, 
ordnance. He knew well the art of marching and its importance. 
Eis ten-minutes' rest in the hour was like the law of the Medes 
and Persians, and some of his generals were in frequent trouble 
for their neglect of it. Of such things he was careful, until there 
came the hour for action, and then, no matter how many were left 
behind, he must reach the point of attack with as large a force as 
possible. He must push the battle to the bitter end and never 
pause until he had reaped the fruits of victory. Over and over 



15 

again he rode amonpr hig advancing troops, with liis hand up- 
lifted, crying, "Forward, men, forward ; press forward !" 

:MiLiTAin' (jExrus. 

Under the phiin exterior, and in the daily discharge of a pro- 
fessor's work at Lexington, there were but few that suspected the 
geniiis of the man. Sometimes men drew l-aek as from an inner 
mystery, the mingled ambition and luimility, the tire that would 
sometimes glow in the eye that was commonly patient, a spirit that 
seemed ready to burst out in some great deed or marvellous career. 

J\Irs. Margaret Preston, we are told, in her life lately published 
here in Boston, accompanied Major Jackson and his bride, who 
was her sister, on a bridal tour. x\t Quebec, on the Heights of 
Abraham, Jackson stood by the monument of Wolfe. And to her 
amazement he seemed transfigured. He stood erect and thrilled 
with passion, when he read aloud the inscription, the dying words 
of Wolfe, "I die content," and cried, with a passionate movement 
of the arm. "To die as he died, who would not die content?" Long 
and well she had known him, and now came the revelation of a 
war spirit, which slumbered within, and was awakened by this 
monument to a heroic soldier and his noble during. 

The spring the war broke out, when there was much excitement 
in Lexington, there was one day some violence among the cadets 
of the Virginia Military Institute, and with difficulty their com- 
mandant succeeded in bringing them back to quarters. One after 
the other the professors spoke, striving to quiet the excited boys. 
At last Jackson was called on, and when he was expected to be 
awkward and inept, to the astonishment of all, he was erect and 
alert, his voice ringing clear as he spoke. He commended them 
for obedience to their commanding officer, and thrilled the audi- 
ence by declaring, "The' time may come when your State may need 
your services, and if that time does come, then draw your swords 
and throw away the scabbards." And every cadet knew that their 
strange, reticent professor was something more than he had ever 
seemed. 



PliEPAKlNG FOR THE CAMPAIGN. 

Some time in March General Jackson broke np his headquarters 
at Moss Neck, and pitched his tents at Yerby's place, in the Mas- 
saponax Valley, only a mile or so from army headquarters. Gen- 
eral Lee, knowing the coming campaign and the great army he 
would confront, was not reinforced, but depleted, against his 
earnest remonstrance. General Longstreet was sent to the south 
side, with two good divisions under valuable commanders, Hood 
and Pickett. Hampton's brigade of cavalry was sent to South 
Carolina, and Jenkins into the VaUey of Virginia, so that com- 
ing to the anticipated conflict. General Lee was compelled to give 
battle with a much diminished force. When the spring came there 
were present for duty in General Lee's army 48,000 men of all 
arms. And in the army of the Potomac, in Stafford, 105,000. 
These are the figures of Colonel Livermore, of Massachusetts, in 
his "Number and Losses of the Civil War." That is, General 
Hooker had 56,000 more than Loe. more than twice as many, with 
unlimited resources of all things needed for the campaign. 

The Federal army had met defeat in the December before at 
Fredericksburg, under Burnside. It was Hooker's wise plan to 
send an army corps across the river at Fredericksburg, and to at« 
tack the Confederates in the old lines of the winter before, and 
so occupying attention to move the main force of the army across 
the river ten miles above, and advance to the Chancellorville house, 
outflanking the Confederates and compelling them to retire. This 
would mean the surrender of the strong lines of defence back 
of Fredericksburg, a retreat toward Richmond, and a battle in the 
open, somewhere on the way. Sedgwick crossed at Fredericks- 
burg, and below, on the morning of April 29, 1863, under cover 
of a heavy fog. He had the fifth and sixth corps of the army of 
the Potomac, with 40,000 men, while Hooker went to Chancel- 
lorsville with 42,000 and a reserve of 11,000 at Bank's Ford. 
Stoneman, with 10,000 cavalry, was sent by Orange and Louisa, 
far to our rear, at Ashland, near Richmond, to cut the railroad, 
prevent reinforcement, cut off supplies and create consternation. 

So full were Flooker's divisions, and so complete his prepara- 



17 

tions, that he wrote to Washington, when the movement began, 
"That the army of the Potomac was the finest on the planet." He 
said "it was a living army, and one worthy of the confidence of 
the Eepublic."' The military preparations were perhaps the most- 
complete and perfect in any campaign of thait war. There was a 
military telegraph; there were balloons, and signal stations and 
pontoons, and ordnance stores that were not dreamed of in the 
South. Each infantrj'man carried forty-five pounds, sixty rounds 
of ammimition and eight days' rations, in haversacks and in knap- 
sacks. There was beef on foot for five daj's. 

CHANCELLORSVILLE. 

The battle of Chancellorsville was certainly one of the most 
remarkable in all the history of wars. It was not a single engage- 
ment, for it was fought on four fields — -at Fredericksburg, at Sa- 
lem Church, on the lines east of Chancellorsville, and then in the 
sweeping assault of Jackson on the West. PJach was important to 
the Confederates, and success in each was necessary to success in 
the other, and to the splendid victory of the whole engagement. 

On the part of the Confederates, it was not defensive as Fred- 
ericksburg had been. Hooker no sooner came to Chancellorsville 
than he settled into lines and became defensive. Lee and Jack- 
son refused to remain on the defensive, but took the field in vigo- 
rous attack, and that had much to do with the victory. 

There was a violation on the part of General Lee of an old law 
of strategy, that the smaller command must not be divided in the 
face of a superior force. General Lee divided his army into three 
forces, separated by miles, with the enemy's forces between. That 
superb strategy was General Lee's, with all its audacity. The 
successful execution was General Jackson's, bold, characteristic, 
unrelenting. And it is also true that an indispensable part was 
that accomplished by General Early, in his resistance of the ad- 
vance of Sedgwick at Marye's Heights, and then at Salem Church. 

General Hooker's dispatches came to Sedgwick, according to 
the Eebellion Eecord, every few minutes, commanding, urging, en- 
treating, that he would sweep all obstacles out of his way, and 
move on the rear of Lee. Early and Barksdale with a small force, 



made most strenuous resistance, and when at last outflanked, they 
retired to Salem Church and were reinforced by Anderson, thev 
took the offensive and compelled Sedgwick to retire to the north 
of the Eappahannock. If Howard met defeat in the west, Sedg- 
wick met a defeat in the east, that to me is more difficult to ex- 
plain. 

Perhaps the defeat of General Hooker was not due to Howard 
or Sedgwick, nor to the failure of both of them, but, you will per- 
mit me to suggest, (1) to the sending away of his whole cavalry 
force, (2) to his withdrawal from an advanced position on the 
east and the falling back to the defensive. That withdrawal meant 
refusal to fight General Lee where he met him, in the open field, 
with positions to Hooker's advantage, and it damaged the morale 
of Hooker's army. And, more seriously, it uncovered the roads 
to his rear, which enabled Jackson to make his great flank move- 
ment. Moreover, General Hooker, I suspect, did not give Gen- 
eral Lee credit for great military audacity. Nor did he remember 
that Stonewall Jackson was there, and there to do as he had done 
over and over again, in the Valley campaign, and at Cold Harbor, 
and the Second Manassas. It is a remarkable thing that as to 
Hooker and his generals there was no suspicion and no preparation 
to meet an attack in rear. 

THE BIVOUAC BEFORE THE BATTLE. 

General I^ee and General Jackson spent the night before the 
battle sleeping on the pine straw at the point, a mile and a half 
east of Chaneellorsville, where the Catharine furnace road leaves 
the old Orange plank road, curtained only by the close shadows of 
the pine forest. I made my bed with my saddle blanket, and with 
my head in my saddle, near my horse's feet, I was soon wrapped 
in the heavy slumber of a weary soldier. Some time after mid- 
night I was awakened by the chill of the night, and, turning 
over, caught a glimpse of a little flame on the slope above me. 
and sitting up, I saw bending over a scant fire of twigs two men 
seated on cracker boxes, warming their hands over the fire. I had 
but to rub my eyes and collect my wits to recognize the figures of 
Robert E. Lee and Stonewall J;ickson. Who can tell the story 



19 

of that council of war between two sleeping armies? Nothing 
remains to tell of plans discussed and dangers weighed, and a 
great decision made, but the story of the great day so soon to 
follow. 

It was broad day light, and thick beams of yellow sunlight came 
slanting through the pines, when some one touched me rudely 
with his foot, and said, "Get up. Smith, the General wants you." 
As I jumped to my feet the rythmic click of the canteen and bayo- 
net of marching infantry caught my ear. Already in motion! 
What could it mean? In a moment I was mounted and at the 
side of the General wlio sat on his horse by the side of tlie road 
as the long line of our troops cheerily, and yet silently, passed 
their General with smiles of delight, and poured down the fur- 
nace road. I had orders and instructions for the trains of every 
kind, and spent the earlier hours of the morning finding officers 
in charge of trains, and starting their movements to certain cross- 
roads, Todd's Tavern, a few miles south. At 3 P. M. I overtook 
General Jackson far around to the west, sitting on a stump on the 
Brock road writing his last dispatch to General Lee. The orig- 
inal dispatch hangs in the Virginia State Library, and a remnant 
of the stump hangs in the hall of my home. 

At 4 P. jNI. Jackson, at the head of his column, reached the old 
turnpike road, about four miles directly west of Chancellorsville. 
At 4:10 P. M. General Hooker telegraphed' to General Butter- 
field: "We know that the enemy is fleeing, trying to save his 
trains." That afternoon Mr. Pierpont," who called himself the 
Governor of Virginia, Avas in Pittsburg, and telegraphed the War 
Department that Jackson was about to march into Pennsylvania. 
At 8:20 P. M., after Jackson's attack on Howard, when Jackson 
was sweeping on toward Chancellorsville, Governor Curtin, of 
Pennsylvania, telegraphed to the Secretary of War that a rebel 
force of 20,000 under Stonewall Jackson was at XJniontown, in 
Western Pennsylvania. E. E. 347. 

THE ADVANCE. 

Between 5 and 6 o'clock in the evening, Saturda}'-, May 2d, the 



disposition was made across the turnpike road, facing directly to 
the east and to Chancellorsville, Eode's division in front, witli a 
well-trained skirmish line; Colston, with Trimble's division in the 
second line, and A. P. Hill's division in column on the road. A 
bugle sounded the advance from the centre, and was repeated from 
the far right and left, and the long line of skirmishers sprang 
eagerly through the forest. For a moment all the troops seemed 
buried in the depths of the gloomy thicket, and then suddenly the 
echoes waked and swept the country for miles, never failing until 
heard at Hooker's headquarters at Chancellorsville, the wild "rebel 
yell" of the Confederate lines, jSTever was assault delivered with 
grander enthusiasm ! Alas for Howard and his imformed lines, 
his brigades scattered, with guns stacked and officers asleep, and 
butchers deep in the blood of beeves. Across Talley's fields the 
rout began; over at Hawkin's Hill, on the north of the road, Carl 
Sehurz made a stand, soon to be driven in the same hopeless panic. 
By the quiet Wilderness church in the vale, leaving wounded and 
dead everywhere, on into the deep thicket again, the Confederate 
lines press forward, Jackson on the road in the centre, with up- 
lifted hand, crying always, "Forward, men, forward; press for- 
ward !" 

JACKSON WOUNDED. 

T, one of the young aides, had been directed to remain at the 
point where the advance began, to keep open communication with 
the flanks, and convey certain orders to troops and batteries 
coming up from our rear. About 8 o'clock, in the twilight, sup- 
posing my duty discharged at that point, I gathered a few cou- 
riers and, mounting a fine black charger left by some fleeing 
officer, I went forward to find General Jackson. Across two miles 
of battle field 1 rode, with its wounded and dead of both sides, its 
gathering groups of prisoners imder guard, its shattered and de- 
serted artillery, and its arms of all kinds littering the ground. 
Reaching an open field on the right, a mile west of Chancellors- 
ville, I found a group of mounted men near an old cabin. Turn- 
ing toward them I found Eodes and his staff. "General Jackson 
is just ahead on the road. Captain; tell him I will be here at this 



21 

cabin if I am wanted/"' A hundred yards farther on the road I 
heard firing, a companj^ volley on the right, and a few moments 
later a company volley on the left. An aid of General A. P. Hill's 
told me Jackson was wounded, and spurring my horse into a sweep- 
ing gallop, I passed the line of battle, and a few rods to the front 
found the General's horse on the road to the left, and a rod be- 
yond a group of men earing for a wounded officer. Leaping from 
the saddle, I found General Jackson lying on the road with his 
head on the breast of Gen. A. P. Hill. In his extreme ardor to 
press his front lines on to Chancellorsville, he had reluctantly con- 
sented that the reserve division of A. P. Hill should be brought 
up and placed in the front, and while the new line was in forma- 
tion, the General rode forward, with two or three of his staff and 
a number of signal sergeants and couriers. He passed the swampy 
depression and began the ascent of the hill toward Chancellors- 
ville, when he came upon a line of the Federal infantry lying on 
their arms. Fired at by one or two muskets, he turned and came 
back toward his line, upon the south side of the road. As he 
came near the Confederate line the left company, supposing the 
approaching horsemen to be a party of the enemy, began firing to 
the front, and two of his party fell from their saddles. Spurring 
his horse across the road, he was met by a second volley from the 
right company of Lane's North Carolina brigade. Under this 
volley, when Imt a few rods from his troops, the General received 
three balls at the same instant. One penetrated the palm of his 
right hand, and was cut out that night from the back of his hand, 
a second passed around the wrist of his left hand, and a third 
passed through the left arm half way between the shoulder and 
elbow. It splintered the bone to the elbow joint, and it severed 
the artery. His horse turned quickly from the fire through the 
thick bushes, which swept the cap from his head and scratched his 
forehead, leaving drops of blood to stain his face. As he lost 
his hold on his bridle rein, he reeled from his saddle, and was 
caught in the arms of Captain Wilbourne, of his staff, and laid 
upon the ground. There came at once to his succor Gen. A. P. 
Hill and members of his staff. I reached his side at that mo- 
ment and made an unskilled attempt to stay the blood. Couriers 



were sent for our medical director. Dr. McGnire, and for an ambu- 
lance. Litter-l)earers were brought from the line nearby, and 
under a searching artillery fire, we started to the rear, Twice men 
who were bearing the stretcher were shot down, and once the 
wounded, fainting General fell to the groimd. At last, when it 
seemed an age of teriffic fire, we reached an ambulance. 

At the field hospital, in the wilderness, after midnight, the left 
arm was amputated near the shoulder and a ball taken from the 
right hand. Of the party that gatliered that night about our 
disabled chief, I am now the sole survivor. Do you remember the 
magnanimous note of General Lee, which came on the day fol- 
lowing : 

"1 cannot express my regret at this occurrence. Could I have 
directed events, I should have been disabled in your stead. I con- 
gratulate you upon the victory which is due to your skill and 
energy. 

"Most truly yours, 

"E. E. Lee, General." 

When I read this dispatch to General Jackson, he turned his 
face away and said, "Gen. Lee is very kind, but he should give the 
praise to God." 

That Sunday morning, Jeb. Stuart led the lines of Jackson, al- 
most without orders of any kind, and with his black plume in 
sight, they charged and "Eemembered Jackson," until Hooker, 
disabled, gave the command to Crouch, and his line fell back, and 
then recrossed the river to the old camps on the Stafford hills. 

CONTENT TO DIE. 

At Guinea's Station, on the Fredericksburg Eailroad, the next 
Sunday afternoon at 3:15, the dying soldier, like Wolfe at Quebec, 
was "content to die," and saying, "No, no, let us pass over the river 
and rest under the shade of the trees !" the Christian soldier went 
up on the hills where there is no war, nor strife, but the happy 
reign of eternal peace. 

"A hero came amongst us as we slept ; 
At first he lowly knelt — then rose and wept; 
Then gathering up a thousand spears 



23 

He swept across the field of Mars, 
Then bowed farewell and walked beyond the stars, 
In the land where we were dreaming." 

THE ESTIMATE OF CRITICS. 

It is said by military critics, that Jackson's campaign in the 
Shenandoah Valley was the finest example of strategy of which 
the world has any record. The story of that campaign is studied 
as a model, both of tactics and strategy, and is the subject of lec- 
tures for months each year in the military schools of England 
and Germany. Von Moltke, perhaps, the greatest of modern 
masters of strateg}', is reported as saying that Jackson's campaign, 
in the Virginia valley, is without a rival in the world's history. 

In the brief period of two years, he won the confidence of his 
superiors, then the worship of his troops, and then the wonder and 
admiration of the world. Cassar spent eight years in his first 
series of victories ; Hannibal reached the height of fame after 
fifteen years of war; Napoleon gathered his soldiers about him 
after the fatal Eussian campaign, and said, "The cannon-balla 
have been playing around our feet for twenty years." 

To Stonewall Jackson but two years were given to try his steel 
and win his fame ; and in that short time he made a record of 
campaigns apparently without mistake, and of battles which in 
a just sense were without defeat. 

Does it seem strange to any one that on this platform, here in 
Boston, I am standing before you as your guest, and telling you my 
story of Jackson, his character and his career? With the soothing 
balm of time, there have come some correction of the angle of our 
vision, and a good spirit of the love of truth, and a gracious desire 
to heal all wounds and understand each other well. For the good 
of a common country, shall we gather what we may of lesson and 
aspiration out of the story of unhappy strife? Shall we hope that 
it was true that it was good for us that we were afflicted ; and shall 
we now study the things that make for peace, and cultivate a com- 
mon patriotism of the highest Christian manhood; and North and 
South and East and West go forward, "he&Tmg one another's bur- 
dens?" 



